Earlier today we were introduced to the hotel's owner(?)/manager, Matt, an expat from Ohio! Matt gave us a little background information on himself, and then told us more about the hotel, which is actually a nonprofit with a side business of a hotel.
After Matt graduated from school, he did a year of volunteer service in Malawi...and decided he wanted to stay. So he's been living here for the past 10 years running his own nonprofit - Determined to Develop (D2D). D2D supports the local community in a number of ways - providing housing and school scholarships for kids from nursery school through university, providing daily meals for a great number of kids from the local community, providing micro-loans to local businesses, and helping women start their own businesses so they can be self-sufficient, among other things. He began the hotel as a side gig to bring in more income, which, along with the bar and restaurant, also employs many of the young people who live/attend school here. There are 40 kids who live in a huge house on campus, with another roughly 350 who receive education at the school, and another several hundred who receive meals daily. D2D works with the local community to discover needs and connect with young people who could use their services. From what I could gather, they have a handful of full-time staff, and about 60 part-time staff who help support all their operations. Pretty wonderful.
It sounds like an incredible organization doing a lot of amazing work in Malawi. If you're interested in learning more or donating, I hope you feel inspired to check out their website at determinedtodevelop.org!
No comments:
Post a Comment